SUMMARY

In early July, 2001, Vancouver social worker Jackie Lynne noticed in a weekly newspaper that an organization sponsoring rave parties was advertising a Pimp ‘N Ho themed party. We later found out that this theme originated with a Las Vegas USA organization, Paragon, which travelled and produced the shows.

The Pimp ‘N Ho rave was originally slated to be sponsored by local and international Vancouver businesses. These included English Bay Eye Care, Boy’s Co (a men’s clothing store), Fitness World, and Club Vibes, which advertised events online. Two multinational corporations, Mike’s Hard Lemonade and Corona Beer, also planned to sponsor the event.

Jackie Lynne and Melissa Farley, who have collaborated in a research project documenting the experiences of 100 women in prostitution in Vancouver, decided to boycott the event, with the goal of educating the public about the mainstreaming of prostitution.

This web site describes how we organized our protest, and it is our hope that others will find the information helpful in organizing similar events in their own communities.

Here are some ideas we have about organizing a similar protest.

  1. Email is truly a miracle when it comes to organizing events like this. You can send out information very quickly and cheaply to a large number of people. See the ACTION ALERT, our first communication about this event which went out to a number of email lists.

  2. Think like a detective to organize a boycott. The more information, the better. Although we did not use it publicly, we were pleased to know that one of the sponsors of the event had been previously affiliated with Big Brothers of British Columbia.

  3. Don’t believe what the people on the other end of the phone tell you. With the exception of Fitness World, who were shocked that their organization was listed as a Pimp ‘N Ho sponsor, and immediately withdrew — all other sponsoring organizations at first downplayed the event, said it was just harmless fun, and basically suggested that we were silly.
  4. That’s until we mentioned the "b" word: boycott. Then they got a little more polite. We informed each potential sponsor that unless they immediately withdrew sponsorship, we would post their name and address up on a widely-viewed website as corporate sponsors of the mainstreaming of prostitution via a pimp 'n 'ho event.

  5. After one sponsor drops out, tell the other sponsors that one business has pulled out, and that that business name will be immediately taken off the boycott list. Be sure you do that.

  6. This phase of a public boycott/community protest is labor intensive. We were on the phone for about 20 hours, three days running. Everyone we called had to check with their boss, or their public relations Manager.

  7. But in the meantime, the ACTION ALERT was circulating, stores were calling us and asking us to take them off the boycott list. Once most of the sponsors withdrew, there was not enough money to pay for the event.


  8. We contacted the Vancouver and Canadian Press and issued a press statement. We set up a press conference, inviting all newspapers, TV, radio. We held the press conference at a Vancouver agency which helped girls escape prostitution.

  9. We wanted to use the energy and community outrage that was building about this event. We developed a list of signers of a protest statement, which included many local organizations, international organizations, and individuals.
  10. Eventually, all the organizations sponsoring the event withdrew their support, and the event was cancelled.

  11. We decided to hold a victory party at the originally planned location of the event, Vancouver’s Plaza of Nations.

  12. We made up "No Pimps" t-shirts for everyone (see graphics).

  13. We passed out informational leaflets about the Pimp 'n 'Ho protest, and about prostitution to passers-by.

  14. Never give up. Two women organized this, and hundreds of others joined in.
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